Overgravity Brewing

[Fat Bastard]

Just cracked the first keg of the second batch of OG saison. Tastes perfect.and not at all watery. I've got a batch of 9.65% Imperial IPA crashing in the fridge at the mo' which will be the first attempt at an AAA double batch. It will be interesting to see how the hops respond to this method. I'm pretty impressed so far, and I'm slowly getting the process dialled in. I think there is more work to be done on the water correction for the dilution water, so I have got a hold of some 88% lactic acid to drop the pH slightly and will continue with the mineral additions as previously described. I'm going to abandon trying to carb in the keg, it's a pain, and I don't really think there's much oxygen left to scavenge after the boil. The second saison did not carb up naturally at all, even after being parked next to the heater for a month, so i can only assume that either the high alcohol of the OG ferment killed it off, or there wasn't enough oxygen for it to kick up again. Probably a bit of both.

I'm not sure the beers will win any awards, but for the first time since I bought my kegerator, I've had more full kegs than will fit into it, and I've had to buy another two to increase my capacity. It's also more than drinkable, and not nasty homebrew by any stretch of the imagination

 

[TheWiggman]

Post #10 has me well intrigued. Have you brewed this recipe before FB? Do you think this brew has more 'flavour' for it's %ABV than a beer brewed using standard methods?

 

[Fat Bastard]

Can't say that I've brewed a single batch of the same beer, but both recipes for the double have been scaled up versions of the standard brew. Standard being in the case of the Saison 6.5%abv and for the yet to be diluted Amber, 5.6%.

That post was the one that got me really thinking about the viability of the process. I suppose in the interests of the scientific method, i'll now have to brew single batches of the beers to prove the pint!*

Certainly on an anecdotal level, both batches of Saison do not taste like they've been watered down by 50%! One of the local breweries do a "small" saison which is around 3.5%, which tastes kind of insipid. I suspect it's brewed at that gravity and not diluted, but they were kind of cagey when quizzed about it, so who knows.

I honestly think the method has a lot of potential for homebrewing, I've still got some minor issues to solve around the process, but really it's only an extra step to boil some water the day before kegging and making sure the profiles match.

* This was a typo, but I think i'll just leave it alone.

 

[Fat Bastard]

Ok, so sort of proving the pint...

Cheers Martin!

Tasting the results for the first time (brought the water down from 7.16pH to 5.4pH with 1.1ml of 88% lactic in 25l...Couldn't taste it when I took a sample) and it's honestly the ****. I've done this particular recipe as a full volume brew many times and I've never had the hops popping quite like this. In fact, the hop aroma and taste are a bit much for the AAA style, I reckon i'll have to dial it back a tad for the next brew, although i'll wait to taste the second keg to see how a bit of age goes with it.

My "good" fermenter is tied up with a Saison/Brett blend for the next little while, so i reckon I'll re-brew this one immediately. I think I'm onto something here...

from this thread.

I've brewed the half strength recipe a few times before and I actually think it's somewhat improved from the original. I've changed the dilution ration from 50/50 to 60/40 (compared to the Saison recipes I've done previously), upped the mash temp from 68 to 70 and buggered around with the dilution water pH, but it tastes better than the normal verson. The aroma hops are really in-your-face good.

The second keg of this one is a 50/50 dilution, due in part to the fact that I didn't allow for the amount of free range dry hop pellets to sink out of the OG wort, so I didn't get the amount I hoped into the second keg. I'm going to re-brew it immediately based on what it tastes like out of the 60/40 first keg (5.6 ABV)